The Battle to Establish the Eternal Religion Chapter Six —Extinguishing the Light in the Modern Day
The Rise of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtan Movement
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada accomplished an amazing feat unparalleled in all of the history of the world—single-handedly he successfully transplanted a bona fide religious tradition all around the globe, installing it complete with it its own culture. He was the first jet-age swami who used every technological advantage he could to distribute his message far and wide. Not that he created something new, or simply catered to people’s base desires. What he brought to the world was the Eternal Religion, the ancient Vaishnava spiritual practices without diluting it to make it more palatable to the masses. He insisted that his followers strictly follow the four regulative principles of freedom: no meat eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex, and no gambling. Yet despite these prohibitions of activities that were the very order of the day in the “liberated” 60’s, his movement grew quickly, attracting the youth who were looking for a reasonable alternative to a culture steeped in materialism, selfishness and hypocrisy.
He attributed his strictness as one of the reasons of his success. When asked by a Catholic priest how he was able to attract so many youth away from their native religion he responded that it was because they (the Catholics) did not follow their own precepts. He challenged the priest, that the Bible says “thou shalt not kill”, but daily they are guilty of killing so many animals without the slightest twinge of conscience.
Srila Prabhupada’s success mirrored that of the 13th century the Cathars of France who also experienced tremendous growth in their ranks despite the similar austerities they required of their followers: no eating of meat, no intoxicants, no illicit sex, and prolonged and austere worship practices (except for the princes, gambling was something of a non-issue in the feudal era). Their growth was so alarming (and apparently threatening) to the Roman church that a crusade was enjoined against these upstanding “Christians” and an inquisition was established to ferret them out. The Cathars, were obviously giving the people something of significant value that was lacking in their experience with the Roman church.
Likewise Bhaktivedanta’s “church” was also growing exponentially. Besides the strict prohibitions, he offered his followers the opportunity to taste the nectar of devotion that is the concomitant factor of every genuine religious process, and thereby gave them the taste for which they would always be anxious. His devotees hadn’t need to wait until death to experience the truth of their religious activity—they experienced it immediately—an incomparable joy that was reflected in their bright smiling faces. It was an irresistible attraction to many a forlorn youth, who sought some meaning for their lives. But Bhaktivedanta didn’t simply offer the dried cakes of religious dogma. He challenged them with an intellectually stimulating theology and a personal spiritual world view sufficient to satisfy the most inquiring and discriminating minds. And even more enticing, he showed by his own personal example how each and every one of his followers could achieve self-realization in this very life. His was a sterling example of what could be achieved on the spiritual strength of bhakti-yoga. Purity is the force he would say. At last, in a culture that was exploiting and cheating its members at every turn, here was someone who was their genuine well-wisher, giving them not just a religious process, but the very highest conception of God that could be found anywhere! Under his capable shelter the Movement grew to include tens-of-thousands on every continent. The devotees, in their authentic Vaishnava dress, and blissful street-chanting, became a modern phenomenon.
These thousands of dedicated devotees worked incessantly to fulfill the desire of their spiritual master to spread Krishna Consciousness in every town and village. They distributed his books by the millions, distributed sanctified foodstuffs to additional millions, and with joy spent hours instructing any inquisitive person about the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness. They did this selflessly, with no remuneration, and even at times at considerable expense to themselves. “Whatever you get spend for Krishna. He is no poor man, and He will make more available to you as you require” instructed Prabhupada. And they did. In every country, rich or poor, at peace and in strife, these thousands of eager soldiers of the sankirtan army are fit to be counted amongst the greatest souls of this world. They have done immeasurable good for the world without discrimination.
As Srila Prabhupada’s society grew he guided it as a loving father, constantly traveling to personally visit centers all around the world. The recordings of his conversations and lectures during his visits give testament to his loving guidance that he offered to all of his disciples. The wayward he would lovingly correct, or perhaps severely chastise if it were called for. But it was an extremely rare circumstance under which he would reject anyone from his society, and it practically never happened. He would always encourage everyone in some way to serve the Supreme Lord. He would fan the spark of devotion, and his attendance to their efforts, sometimes so small as to almost be inconspicuous, would cause the fire of devotion to flame. Encouraged and empowered by his faith in them, his disciples demonstrated the amazing results that could be generated by love. Just twelve short years of such encouragement resulted in a significant social movement with a presence in every major city across the globe, even if was necessarily underground, as in the Communist countries.
Srila Prabhupada never deviated from his own high standard. His personal moral standard went far beyond that expected by anyone. As the acharya he demonstrated the ideal behavior of a devotee by his own personal example. The main preoccupations of material society: eating, sleeping, mating and defending, were practically absent in him. He slept so little that some thought he slept not at all, using the quiet hours of the night to do his translations and writing. He was completely regulated in his habits of eating and activity despite traveling the globe almost incessantly. Wherever he would arrive he would simply adjust his schedule to the local time and continue as if he had always been there. In terms of a residence he had none, yet he had one everywhere, at each stop moving into one single room with all of his worldly possessions. Sex life, he taught, was the shackles of the material energy, and he showed himself to be completely free of any inclination for it. He had said that although everyone in the world was chasing after the pleasures of sex, “I have given this up.”
He was completely honest both in word and finance. Nor was there any vice that he was given to in private while making a public display of renunciation. He explained that for one experiencing a higher taste there is no such thing as renunciation from the mundane pleasures of this world. He was quite obviously enjoying such higher pleasures. Prabhupada made time for everyone who approached him. Whether it was visitors who, pressed by their own schedule and without regard to his, demanded to see him, or any of his disciples who wrote to him, he would make time to give darshan and to reply to every letter. His secretaries write how they frequently became frustrated in their attempts to provide him with time for rest and recovery from the grueling demands of international travel, as he would make himself available to anyone who approached him.
He was the embodiment of kindness, mercy, compassion, caring, proper guidance, encouragement and support. Simply put he was a saint. He was the very personification of Krishna Consciousness and his example held out to each of his followers the promise that through the process he had given them, while difficult, was the crucible that could transform them into saints as well. Nobody else in their lives had expected so much from any of them, nor had made them realize that such was their natural constitutional position, much less shown them how to get it, and encouraged them all along the way. He had purchased them heart and soul with such love.
Srila Prabhupada’s purity and the high standards that he set for his followers, although often beyond their reach, were the very attributes that convinced many of them that what he offered was real. God is not cheap he repeatedly said. And if anybody knew what God was it was Srila Prabhupada. Nobody else in the modern world spoke with such authority and knowledge on this subject as he did, and he spoke not on his own authority about a God that he had conjured up in the fertile recesses of his brain, but on the authority of the Vedas according to the siddhanta as it had been delivered through the ages by the previous acharyas. He was the next acharya, the eminently qualified person to deliver the message in a way suitable to the understanding of the people of his time, which he did in a wonderful manner through his Bhaktivedanta purports. Understanding how powerful the process of sadhana bhakti is he was able to promise that, however difficult the path might be, that if we held to his instructions, chanting 16 rounds every day, following the four regulative principles, and attending the morning program, then we were guaranteed to return home, back to Godhead at the end of this life. But if we tried to cheat we would find that Krishna is the greatest cheat, and we would only wind up cheating ourselves. So we knew that if we deviated from his standard, desisting out of worldly-mindedness, or whatever cause, that we could not then expect to achieve the transcendental goal. By his grace he put that topmost objective within our reach—every one of us—who would keep our end of the bargain. He set the mark, and it became the target for our life. It was his standards that became the very gatekeepers to the path out of this material world. They were in one sense the most visible hallmark of Krishna Consciousness. Being so visible it would be easy to tell if they were altered, their alteration then being the immediate indicator that the target would not be achieved, that something less than the highest result would be a consolation prize. If the standards were compromised, it would mean that the process was now compromised, and therefore that the goal was also compromised. Individual failures were sure to be there. They had been all along. But the standards remained and protected the potency of the process, along with its concomitant transcendental result. The standards of purity and honesty were the most visible indicators of the health and success of the Movement. Tampering with the standards would indicate an introduction of the cheating process of religion--kaitavah dharma—the very same false religious activities that are rejected from the Srimad Bhagavatam. In the short twelve years of his international ministry Srila Prabhupada established Krishna Consciousness, the modern manifestation of the Eternal Religion, on every continent and even planted the seeds for its future manifestation behind the so-called “Iron Curtain”, in what could be considered the very capital of atheism, Moscow. He also established Lord Jagannatha’s Rathayatra in almost every major city of the world, and his crowning success in this regard might be considered a appropriately grand Rathayatra parade in 1976 down Fifth Avenue in New York City, what he called “the most important street in the most important city in the world”. These public Rathayatra festivals served notice to one and all that the Eternal Religion had again become established. Moreover, besides establishing the Eternal Religion in the land of the mlecchas, he brought the living example of it back to his own country in the form of his followers, and with their help established fittingly large temple complexes from which he could now demonstrate to his countrymen, most of whom had become helplessly confused about the Eternal Religious principles due to so many competing ideas, the true understanding of bhakti, along with its practice and most importantly, the genuine and visible results of that practice. Such is the manifestation of the Eternal Religion not only in the West, but all over the entire globe.
Reaction of the Raksasa Host Srila Prabhupada was very aware that the established powers would consider his Movement as an enemy, after all he advocated bringing about an end to the sin industries—intoxication, meat eating, gambling and illicit sex, although any great changes were as yet far from reality. But consider again Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s admonition: “The materialist has a natural repugnance for the transcendent. King Kamsa is the typical aggressive empiricist, ever on the lookout for the appearance of the truth for the purpose of suppressing Him before He has time to develop,” In a conversation with Siddha-svarupa Das[1] he clearly anticipates the reaction of the established order.
Prabhupada: “So this movement should be pushed very vigorously. And so far, we have become successful. And enemies will be always, as soon as there is something good. That is the way of material world. Even Krishna had enemies, what to speak of us. So many enemies, but He was powerful; He killed all them. Nobody could kill Him, but there was attempt to kill Him from the very beginning of His birth. He had so many enemies. As soon as Kamsa heard that his sister is now newly married, but as soon as there was some foretelling, ‘Ah, you are taking care of your sister so nicely. The eighth child of this sister will kill you.’ ‘Oh, where is your child? Where is pregnancy?’ Nothing. He became angry. ‘So why wait for eighth child? Kill my sister.’
“Long, long before taking birth of Krishna, the mother was to be killed. This is the position of this material world. So he became so bad that he did not consider that ‘She is my sister, and she is just newly married. Where is pregnancy? Where is child? And that is the eighth child, and what will happen after that?’ No consideration. Immediately, ‘Kill him, kill her.’ This is the position.
“So we are instructing: no intoxication. So those who are flourishing by selling cigarettes and wine and liquor, they do not... ‘Immediately kill him.’ Oh, yes, in this way they are thinking: ‘If the movement goes and becomes very strong, then our business will be lost. Kill him.’ So naturally they will be enemies. The same thing, the Kamsa saw that ‘This my sister, now she is married. So although it will take some long time, but here is the cause.’ So they are thinking like that. No meat-eating, then all slaughterhouses will be closed: ‘They're enemy.’ Although there is no such symptom that slaughterhouse is going to be closed, but they'll think like that. They'll think like that, the same way.
“We have forbidden: no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling. The whole Western world living on these four pillars. Just see our position. And the same conscious way, everyone is thinking, ‘If this movement goes on, then how all these nightclubs will go on? How all breweries will go on? How all slaughterhouse will go on, cigarette factories will go on?’ This is all foolish. So you cannot expect that we will get more, many friends. That is not possible, because the world is full of Kamsas, demons. So we have to struggle...In the face of so many obstacles we have come to this standard that there is one Hare Krishna movement; it is very dangerous to the modern way of life. They're feeling the pulse. Now everywhere we are meeting obstacles.
“In India also, they will want to crush down this movement. So this will be up to Him. Krishna or Krishna's movement, the same thing. And Krishna was attempted to be killed by Kamsa class of men and his company, the demons. So it will be there; it is already there. Don't be disappointed, because that is the meaning that it is successful. Krishna's favor is there, because Krishna and Krishna's movement is not different, identical. So as Krishna was attempted to be killed, many, many years before He appeared...At eighth child, if the mother produces child yearly, still ten years, eight years before His birth, the mother was to be attempted to be killed. So there may be attempt like that. And Lord Jesus Christ was killed. So they may kill me also.”
Siddha-svarupa: I don't think that is possible.
Prabhupada: “No, I mean to say, I am not so important man. But it is the, this is the way of the law. If we become weak by factioning, then that is not good. We must be strong and...But you should not expect that this movement will be accepted. In India the so-called yogis, Rama Krishna Mission – they are also being afraid of us. There are so many...But if we remain sincere, even we are feeble, new-born, nobody can kill us. That is a fact. Just like Krishna when He was three months old, attempt was made by Putana to kill Him, but the Putana was killed. A big demon, gigantic, her dead body was six miles long, and she is killed by a small child, sucking breast and sucking life. That is Krishna. So the other day I have explained that by guru, he is accepted as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
“Yes, arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matih. Naraki, if anyone thinks arca-vigraha, the Deities as made of stone, made of earth, or made of something material, and guru, the spiritual master, ‘he is an ordinary man’ – these are forbidden. So why guru is to be considered saksad dharitvena samasta-sastrair, exactly (like) the Supreme Personality of Godhead? That reason is given there. That reason is that he is giving the Krishna knowledge; therefore he is as good as Krishna. Even though his family members or his friend thinking, "Oh, he has now become guru," still he should be considered the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That reason also given there, that even Krishna was taken as ordinary man, but does it mean that He has become ordinary?
“Similarly our movement, it may appear just like other movement, but because the movement is giving Krishna, that means it is as good as Krishna. This is the example. Ajnaya hana (follow the order). It is actually Krishna. So long it adheres to the principle. If we begin to think ‘I'll enjoy, I'll be accepted’ it then becomes ordinary movement. This same man, he’s guru, so long he gives the real knowledge of Krishna. And the same man, he's ordinary man, as soon as he cannot give. Same thing, just like a stone doll, when it is worshiped according to the regulative principles – Krishna. And the same doll, kept in the sculptor's showroom, it is stone. So if we keep our movement pure, then you are as strong as Krishna. And as soon as you deviate from it, immediately, ordinary. This is the secret. Now it is up to us, how to keep it pure. Then no enemy can kill us. Nobody can kill you. That purity is wanted, then it will continue...Follow the rules and regulations, worship the Deity, and chant Hare Krishna mantra, as you have given, then you will remain as strong as Krishna.”
So the prescription is there: if the devotees remain strong and keep to the principles the Movement is as good as Krishna—unlimitedly strong. If however they deviate, then it loses its potency and becomes an ordinary movement, and therefore vulnerable. Was the purity and the spiritual strength upheld? We now turn to see what steps the Kamsas and Putanas might have taken to suppress this new manifestation of the transcendent.
We have examined the methods practiced by Kamsas and Putanas to deal with the first appearance of the Eternal Religion in the West, in Palestine, which included:
Kill the acharya(s)
Infiltrate the Movement, and from there
Create and spread false teachings in the name of the Eternal Religion
Reduce the number of the faithful through means of torture and death, making an example of them to discourage others
Stamp out any remaining evidence of the original understanding by destroying every last copy of the original teachings
Create a false and spiritually impotent philosophy and religion in the name of the Movement, all the while extolling it to be of true fidelity and righteousness
Use this religion to appeal to, and even promote, the qualities of a materialistic consciousness
Base it on a newly created false scripture and unendingly claim that it is the “inspired word of God”
Establish a means by which to centralize control allowing a select few can to control the followers beliefs and thereby their actions
Convert people to this new religion, and thus bring them under control, by threatening their life, killing those who will not agree
Become accepted by, cooperate with and become the servant of the established order of society
Fast forward now two millennia into the future. What are the methods of the Kamsas and Putanas in dealing with the new manifestation of the Eternal Religion? By and large they were the very same, with some modification in manner and degree. For example, by the twentieth century people in the West were given freedom of religion, it was therefore unacceptable to kill anyone because of their religious beliefs. However it was acceptable in the Soviet Union and a good many devotees were imprisoned, beaten and tortured, and some were even martyred rather than give up their adherence to the Truth. The modern era also brings the development of private property and asset accumulation allows for additional methods not available in days past, for example, lawsuits are now added as another tool in Kamsas bag of tricks.
I want to make it explicitly clear that the following list are mostly, but not all, allegations many of which are as of yet controversial, some of them extremely so. These allegations are not conceived of and brought by myself, but have been made by various devotees, often based on their own first-hand experience. I have become acquainted with them either through my own personal experience, direct conversation, hearsay or written literatures, of which there is a large body in print as well as on the internet. I can say with certainty that I have not read it all and it is not my purpose here to promote any or all of these allegations as factual, but to simply report them in order to compare them to the actions of the Kamsas and Putanas regarding the manifestation of the Eternal Religion in first century Palestine. However, it can be stated with a fair degree of certainty that for most of these points there are many individuals who, by their own experience, would accept them as the complete truth and settled fact. These include:
Kill the acharya
Establish unqualified persons as his chosen, and exclusive, representatives—the new “acharyas” certified as equal to the original founder-acharya
Limit the top rungs of leadership exclusively to these persons and (perhaps) induce them to fall from the high standards expected of acharya in the most sordid ways, thereby discouraging their peers and followers, driving them from the Movement
Create and spout spread false teachings, and create schisms each of which claim to be the true path
Create as much mayhem as possible legitimizing the actions with a veneer of fanaticism
Drive as many of the faithful away as possible by disparagement, discouragement, deceit, dishonor, and mismanagement
Commit illegal or immoral acts that give the Movement a bad name in the eyes of the public
Discourage and humiliate the women
Discourage the second generation by physical, verbal and sexual abuse
Withhold the teachings as far as possible, for example, the collection of Srila Prabhupada’ letters
Reduce the number of the faithful through means of arrest, torture and death, making an example of them to discourage others, and as far as possible make them recant their beliefs.
Have professional “deprogrammers” kidnap adults, a felony crime conveniently overlooked by secular authorities, and attempt to make devotees blaspheme and recant their faith.
Posthumously and unnecessarily edit the Srila Prabhupada’s original books to make them less appealing, and alter their meaning, thus reducing their spiritual potency; Thus doing create a precedent that permits future changes to be considered an acceptable and a standard practice, thus paving the way to totally alter the books through a period of successive editions, to the point where at some point in the future they may not at all resemble what Srila Prabhupada originally wrote.
Find ways and means of preventing the dissemination of literature through copyright protection, or by making publication illegal, too expensive, or somehow legally punishable; in terms of sins of omission, fail to take advantage of new technologies that make the transmission of transcendental literature virtually unencumbered and without cost.
Reduce the efforts, funds and focus of action by embroiling the Movement in lawsuits wherever possible
Create false philosophies that will divide and distract the members, keeping them from preaching, focusing instead on internal squabbles
Use these philosophies to appeal to, and even promote, the qualities of a materialistic consciousness in the name of religion
Establish a means by which to centralize control allowing a select few to control the followers’ beliefs and actions
Become accepted by, cooperate with and become the servant of the established order of society
Each of these points can be supported by specific examples and details but I will elaborate only on three that are very significant, indicating likely infiltration of foreign elements into the Movement, and which strongly parallel the experience of the Jewish Christians: changes to the scriptures, a foreign agent within the Movement, “ISKCON’s Paul” if you will, and the passing of the founder-acharya. Each of the other points is significant, but as mentioned they are detailed elsewhere. Here I wish stay to close to the issues, and/or methods, which are identical in form and substance, to those used to destroy the Movement of the first century Jewish Christians. First some general comments about how these acts may have been brought about.
Internal Agents
Due to the nature of the above points it is obvious that the Hare Krishna Movement has only suffered some of these abuses from obvious external agents. It is not so obvious though if they had been aided and abetted by internal agents. The Robin George saga is a case in point. Who was it that irresponsibly decided to allow a minor to stay within the temple against the wishes of her parents, and shuttled her around to a number of temples to do so? An internal agent is as good, or even a better reason, than stupidity and incompetence, especially when a lawsuit drained millions of dollars in damages from ISKCON’s coffers. Amazingly though, an identical situation surfaced in Russia in 2005 where a child was allowed to stay in the temple, according to the news reports, unbeknownst to its parents. This news was gleefully splashed all over the CIS. Why was such an obviously irresponsible act repeated at a time, like in America, when the Movement is enjoying good results? Is it possible that internal agents could then be responsible for making such foolish decisions? It cannot be said with certainty, but neither can the possibility be entirely ruled out.
It was known back in the early 1980’s that the movement was then infiltrated up to the level of temple president and GBC. An anecdote is insightful. The devotees of Los Angeles community who fashioned themselves as ksatriyas would frequent a gun range for target practice. One of the managers of that business who became friendly with those devotees was asked several times by “information agencies” (FBI or CIA) to infiltrate the Los Angeles temple. When he repeatedly refused his family was threatened, and he informed the devotees of the facts as he fled the country.[2] Other devotees have received information regarding the infiltration of the Movement while in prison. Two devotees told me personally that they were informed thus: one devotee in an American prison learning of infiltration by the CIA, and the other a Russian devotee imprisoned in the USSR was told the KGB infiltrated the Movement from America in the early 1970’s. Of course all information received in such ways and involving such purposeful liars as the CIA and KGB must be suspect. However, we also have direct confessions of two agents of the KGB in Ukraine. Having infiltrated the Movement but later becoming thoroughly convinced of the value of Krishna Consciousness, they “blooped” from the KGB (or so we are told—who can know the truth in such affairs?) and later were initiated by Niranjana Swami.
In any case the likelihood of infiltration is great, since the CIA is known to have infiltrated every other “movement” that was taking place in the United States in the 1960’s and 1970’s, such as the women’s liberation movement, the Black Panthers, etc. The Soviet KGB formerly had a division called the Fifth Chief Directorate. It’s purpose was to infiltrate every organization, and from within, divert it from its intended course in order to protect the “ideological purity” of the Soviet Union. How far their reach extends is unknown but it would not be an unlikely stretch to think that they cover the entire world.
It would be highly unlikely that the GBC were/are unaware of such possibilities. It is the rank and file devotees however who are unaware of the response of their leaders to such unseemly events. There is no mention in the minutes of the GBC meetings regarding the discussion and possible consequences of infiltration. Some items of the GBC meetings are unpublished however, and the possibility therefore exists. More telling however is the fact that a significant number of the issues listed above have been created by members of the GBC themselves, only to be decried by their rank and file peers, and met with stonewalling by the GBC body. The GBC have consistently refuted any and all challenges to their authority, regardless of how great the rancor. Instead of taking the charges of their godbrothers seriously and reconsidering their position, or launching their own investigation, they staunchly defended their positions. They continued to do so even as they witnessed thousands, even tens-of-thousands, of devotees leave the Hare Krishna Movement in despair and disgust. Was this the intended result? Could inside agents have been maneuvering for such results? We don’t know, but if they had been, they could not have done a better job.
Such behavior is the signature of internal agents, although we cannot unconditionally state that that is the case. Subterfuge, obfuscation, placing blame, throwing false scents, etc. are their stock-in-trade. We are led to believe that the results wrought through the years have been the result of well-meaning and dedicated servants of Srila Prabhupada doing their best with a difficult job. But remember the quote from Jung given in the introduction: “evil is nothing but a misunderstanding of good”. When the results are consistently the opposite of what would be expected from responsible fiduciaries, a discriminating intelligence must suspect foul play. And many have. Confounded and confused by the GBC the rank and file devotees raised cries of alarm. Not once, but many, many times. One could say constantly through the decade of the eighties. Srila Prabhupada frequently instructed his followers that a thing can be judged by the result. If the intended result was to destroy the Movement by any and every means possible, and on as many fronts at that same time as are possible, they could not have done better. Judging by the result then we are led to the uncomfortable possibility that the agents of Kamsa have indeed made their way into the center of things and created havoc. Can we say that it was all due to Kamsa and Putana outsiders? We cannot. But those of discriminating intelligence having faith in the words of the acharyas, and who can learn the lessons of history should at least be suspect.
Authoritarianism of the GBC
One of the telling behaviors of the GBC body was to tolerate all manners of misbehavior and deviancies from Srila Prabhupada’s high standard. Allegations of illicit sex, both homosexual and heterosexual, on the part of “gurus,” were repeatedly ignored. Involvement in racketeering operations that resulted in the conviction and prison sentence for another guru were also something that the GBC found themselves helpless to deal with. Intoxication and licentious behavior on the part of another guru was overlooked by the GBC, but a not by a disciple who, distraught over his guru’s behavior, took off his head. Repeatedly the GBC showed themselves to be impotent in dealing with the deviancies that threatened the transcendental standing of the Movement as mentioned by Srila Prabhupada above. One thing they would not tolerate, and were very quick to deal with however, was challenges to their authority. Those who would not accept the GBC’s zonal “acharya” system, their guidelines for initiation (which they themselves were forced to change, not once, but several times), or those who simply wanted to discuss the idea that Srila Prabhupada had intended these initial eleven to act as ritvik priests, were quickly driven from the Movement. The balance of power in the Movement shifted from the many thousands of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples to the new gurus, who were all GBC members, and their disciples. The experienced godbrothers were given short shrift in deference to the needs of the new disciples who, it was said, must develop faith that their guru was in fact as good as God, saksad dharitvena samasta-sastrair, despite repeated falldown from the required standard.
We must note that such a great demand on compliance and conformity is always present in authoritarian institutions. Lawrence Gardnier, writing about the control of the Roman church over the acceptable beliefs of its followers, explains that when the intention is control, conformity alone is valued: “above all such considerations there is a further requirement: the requirement to toe the party line while paying homage to the demigods of power. This prerequisite has nothing to do with obeying the law or with behaving properly—it relies totally on not rocking the boat, and on withholding opinions that do not conform.”[3] It could not be said more eloquently or appropriately in relationship to the GBC during the first decade after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance.
It is also important to recognize that most of these claims have been made within the first fifteen years of the founding of the Movement—many even while the acharya was still with us. Hardly then did the Kamsas and Putanas waste any time in dealing with this new manifestation of the Eternal Religion. They immediately recognized the presence and threat of the Krishna Consciousness Movement; the Soviet Union even openly admitted that the Hare Krishna Movement was one of the five most dangerous threats to their way of thought and life.
Controversy Instead of Leadership
Tragically for many of the rank and file followers of Srila Prabhupada, many of the deviations originated with individual GBC members very soon after Srila Prabhupada’s departure, and before the Movement had time to develop a solid sense of self. At the same time, other deviations were established by those pledged to protect the society from them: the entire GBC body. Because a large percentage of Srila Prabhupada’s followers were well-schooled in Vaishnava siddhanta by reading Prabhupada’s books, they knew what should have occurred. When they saw something else instead controversy was immediately generated. and it is worth considering the possible sources of that controversy. There are several reasons:
such charges disturb the minds of the innocent, foolish and naïve, threatening the security and solace they want and need within the Movement they cannot even consider that such things could happen
the guilty hide behind a veneer of righteous indignation and cries of blasphemy
some genuinely cannot see and understand what is taking place. If it isn’t happening in their immediate environment it isn’t happening at all
Others cannot begin to admit that such things could happen. They cannot accept that the forces of atheism have the means or ability to impact a genuinely spiritual movement, because such an idea challenges their concept of spiritual strength and shelter, or could it perhaps indicate that Krishna will not protect His movement from such affronts? Or if not, that He is not actually God? And if He does not protect His movement then where does that leave us?
It leaves us exactly as predicted by Srila Prabhupada above--if the standards are not maintained it becomes an ordinary movement: “Similarly our movement, it may appear just like other movement, but because the movement is giving Krishna, that means it is as good as Krishna...It is actually Krishna. So long it adheres to the principle. If we begin to think ‘I'll enjoy, I'll be accepted’ it then becomes ordinary movement.”
The Revolution
The abuses of the eighties came to a head in New Vrindavana in 1986. A meeting restricted to Srila Prabhupada’s direct disciples drew hundreds, and included most of what had come to be called Iskcon’s middle-management: sannyasis, temple presidents, and regional secretaries, a position created to deal with the geographical management. It also included what had become known as the self-branded “loyal opposition” which was led by Bahudak Das, temple president from Vancouver, Canada, and Ravindra Svarupa, the temple president of Philadelphia. Many other temple president’s and sannyasis were there as well. It was a water-shed event. The sexually-deviant gurus were now driven out, the concepts of the zonal-acharya system were finally dismantled, and the membership of the “guru-club” was opened up to include any of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, but only upon ratification by the GBC body. In other words, the GBC still had to give its rubber-stamp authorization for anyone initiating disciples on behalf of Iskcon. Such a requirement had no basis in earlier Vaishnava siddhanta but the act of requiring it allowed the GBC to maintain their control of the Movement.
While it accomplished a lot, in reality it was too little and too late. The preaching had by now stopped almost completely, since after a few short years the rose-colored glasses came off, and even the new initiates knew full-well that their gurus were not what they were made out to be. Feeling bewildered and cheated they joined the exodus of Prabhupada’s immediate disciples. The Movement’s numbers were dwindling rapidly and the large temples purchased a decade earlier were now maintained only with great difficulty, and many came to be sold despite Srila Prabhupada’s order that such a thing was impermissible. He had established that three GBC men would sign as trustees to all properties with the express understanding that they protect them from being sold. Again it was the GBC who decided they must be sold and signed off on them.
But while the Movement was grinding to a halt in the West, the explosion of Krishna Consciousness there was now echoing in the East. Perestroika and the fall of the Soviet Union brought with it religious freedom and allowed hundreds of millions of people access to the truths they had been deprived for more than seventy years. The movement had been going on underground in Russia and its satellite nations since Srila Prabhupada’s visit to Moscow in 1971. When it was discovered the Soviet agents, Kamsas and Putanas every one, used the age-old methods of brutality to attempt to stem the tide. In the process many devotees were spied upon, followed, harassed, imprisoned, beaten and tortured, and some even killed inside Soviet prisons. The Bhagavad-gita was a breath of life for them and it was passed carefully from one to the next. Usually the book was passed in separate chapters to allow as many as possible to read it simultaneously. Some took it upon themselves to painstakingly copy the 600-page book by hand, and each copy circulated among dozens of readers, each carefully caring for the treasure that had found its way into their hands.
With the freedom of post-Soviet times the Hare Krishna exploded. What did the Kamsas and Putana’s then do? As mentioned above agents of KGB are known to have infiltrated the Movement. Who were they and what was their effort? I had heard from Russian devotees that there were many bad temple president’s who drove many people away from the Movement. I was further told that all of these bad leaders all seemed to go away about the same time, which is indeed curious. But by and large in the year 2005 the Movement in the CIS seems to be following closely in the footsteps of the West, wherein the householders have taken up outside employment, otherwise known as fruitive work, and have a somewhat lax sadhana. The initial flirtation with serious spiritual alternatives has quickly yielded to the temptations offered by Western consumerism and the demands of the market economy which has left millions below official poverty standards. Making ends meet occupies the efforts of most, and gaining more, the efforts of some.
With the exception of Harikesha Swami, a popular guru with some five thousand disciples throughout Eastern Europe, the devotees in the East have been spared the trauma of seeing their gurus fall from grace. The Harikesha incident was nonetheless very damaging and temples in Scandanavia, St. Petersburg, Germany and other places have not been able to recover.
Twenty-first Century Methods
At the dawn of the new millennium legal entanglement seems to be the method of choice for both winnowing the resources as well as distracting from proselytizing activity. Lawsuits in Moscow raged for some time over the attempted withdrawal of land offered to the devotees after the government had razed the building that had served as their home for more than a decade. Temples in southern Russia and Western Ukraine were also lost due to legal complications. In Kazakhstan there is another ongoing lawsuit over property matters, and in the United States the Turley lawsuit is being settled wherein the members of the second generation have taken the society to task for acts of physical and sexual abuse and willful neglect. Are any of these the methods of the Kamsas? It cannot be said for certain, although, again, the possibility of the participation or influence of the Kamsas certainly exists.
Instead of engaging in a head-to-head conflict the methods in recent times seems to have shifted to create a distraction of other concerns and a slow exodus from the temples. They are too often following the model of the Alachua, Florida community: the largest congregation of devotees in all of north America. Alachua the place where there are twenty some former GBC members and temple presidents. How do they demonstrate their understanding of living according to Srila Prabhupada’s teachings? By making money from other devotees by splitting parcels of land, buying and selling real estate, building large and ornate homes, and securing a suitable income, saving for their retirement. And with six multi-millionaires in the community more than 90% of the devotee school children come from homes that are below official government poverty level. We ourselves have become the arm chair speculators that discuss the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita and profess to follow it as our scripture, but in fact ignore the lessons there as we follow the dictates of the dominant demonic culture of “I” and “Mine.”
After the eighties the strength of the Movement shifted geographically from the West to the East. The Movement was but a shambles in Western Europe and the Americas,
Suffice it to say that many accept that all of these challenges to the modern manifestation of the Eternal Religion have already taken place. The ability of any person to be able to see such challenges then depends upon: whether they did in fact take place, whether the individual has a discriminating intelligence to allow them to be able to see what is happening, whether they have inside knowledge not available to the general group that such things are happening, whether acknowledgment of such possibilities is not too great a threat to their concept of reality (if it creates too much cognitive dissonance it cannot be accepted).
What is done by malicious intent and what through inexperience or incompetence. Or does it make any difference? The leaders must be the ones who protect the society from both.
And judging by the results, in the Americas, and in Western Europe it has become an ordinary Movement. There we have lost the fight. The movement has been decimated and is hardly a shadow of its former glory, and no amount of rationalization can justify the result. It is far better to admit that in the first battles we have been bested and regroup with determined effort to win the war. Srila Prabhupada’s direct disciples who have tasted the nectar of devotion and have been blessed by Srila Prabhupada’s own tutelage are now of retirement age and can come back to the field, just as Prabhupada himself had again shown by his own example that age is no impediment in the discharge of the Lord’s devotional service.
Despite all of this nothing material can affect the transcendental Movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, IF AND AS LONG AS the leadership is diligent in protecting it. Arjuna was to win the battle but he still had to fight. Sri Krishna in His ever-loving kindness also wants to give the demons their due. He allows them some quarter, and periodically allows them to triumph over the devas and goodness. But the fight is never over. It looms eternally, and those who are the leaders in this Movement should not for a moment think that they can blithefully go about their business unconscious of that fact.
It is not that everyone in the society is tasked with dealing with these possibilities. This is why the book you are holding is a special limited edition. Specifically it is the leadership and the trustees of the society who bear that burden. It is they that are supposed to have the discriminating intelligence and mature judgment and who bear the fiduciary responsibility for protecting the society. That we have witnessed such a history in the first century, that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta warns us of it, and that Srila Prabhupada himself indicated that such possibilities existed should be sufficient at least to convince the leaders that these possibilities exist and the society must therefore be protected from them.
One result is not to fight directly, but indirectly. The intention now is not to kill the movement but to slow it down, and with time on their side involve the followers in fruitive activity so that they gradually lose their spiritual strength. In a matter of time they will become mundaners. One need look no further than the community of Alachua, Florida, the home to more than a thousand devotees, and a good number of former leaders. There we see that everyone has, by necessity, succumbed to living a life of fruitive work, and becoming good neighbors of the mundane community. They do not shun the association of non-devotees but instead want to integrate. They have accepted money for the government for their school and therefore in that school may not hardly mention the work Krishna Consciousness, and are prevented from teaching their own children how the lessons of life are integrated with the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness.
If we judge by the result we see that in fact the forces of the Kamsas and Putanas are indeed winning the battle. This much we have seen in only forty years. Within another forty all of the immediate followers and direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada will have passed from this world. What can we expect then? What can be expected in one hundred or two or three hundred years? The Kamsas and Putanas are not content to live and let live. they will do there very best to stamp out every last vestige of the Eternal Religion that shows itself in this world. Make no mistake—this is the battle of the ages! The forces of light against the forces of darkness is a perennial theme in this world.
The idea that Lord Chaitanya’s mercy will flood the land and inundate everyone with Love of God will not happen by itself. In this world the Lord acts through His parts and parcels and we must therefore rise to the challenge, acknowledge that these Kamsas and Putanas are in fact real and deadly earnest in their intent, and act to ferret them out of the Movement, if and wherever they are to be found.
The rank and file are generally not equipped to understand the full implications of such possibilities, nor are they in a position to do anything.
Brothers and sisters! It’s time to wake up and rejoin the battle to save planet earth and all of her inhabitants from the perils of the demonic culture now becoming unafraid to show its real face! Everywhere the governments of the world prey on the people. The full weight of the demons now oppresses the weak and innocent. Who will protect them? Srila Prabhupada on several occasions wrote that I want history to record how this movement saved the world in its darkest hour. That time is at hand! There is no time to lose!
It is asked why we would want to explore insights into ISKCON and Christianity from the perspective of discerning atheistic and demonic elements within. To many this is in poor taste and smacks of fault-finding. But there are sufficient reasons to venture there, especially in light of the history. One reason is that while spiritual movements are often looked at and understood in light of their positive spiritual work, rarely are they analyzed from the perspective of the influence of atheistic elements operating within them. It practically goes without saying that any such presence would have a profound effect on expected outcomes given their diametrically opposed objectives. And there is sufficient history now that demonstrates that the outcomes have deviated far enough from their intended trajectory to warrant such suspicions. Further, it is of significance because of the current influence of the demonic element within this material world, as one of its two major and fundamental divisions, and because in this age of Kali the earth is given to the demonic for their nefarious purposes. Kamsa’s agents of darkness are here whether we are aware of the fact or not, and their presence necessarily colors the environment in which we function. Such is the significance of the demonic element that the Supreme Lord explicitly instructs Arjuna, and hence us, on its nature and characteristics.
We may want to shrink away from the labels of atheistic and demonic as being too strong or reactionary, and many do, for they disturb the picture of a pleasant world in which we all would like to live. Who wants to live in a world that they know is being run by demons? The very idea is unacceptable as it wreaks havoc on our plans for enjoyment here. But they are no fools. They know as much, and so make themselves invisible to all but the few that will bother to look beneath the facade, by which they portray themselves as something they are not. That they are quite inconspicuous is what makes most people ignorant of their presence and allows them to function effectively and continue their insidious dirty work.
It is my intention to demonstrate that these are not inappropriate nor overbearing labels. Indeed, it is demanded of us that we see these influences for exactly what they are in order to protect ourselves and Srila Prabhupada’s legacy. We cannot say that these lessons are insignificant; nor can we ignore them without consequence. It would be naïve to assume that the demonic or atheistic influence is nothing to be concerned with at this point in time, or that they have nothing to do with spiritual activity. If we do, we do so at our own peril and we will be the ones to suffer the consequences. Indeed, we have.
[1] May 3, 1976, in Honolulu [2] This comes to me first hand from the devotee who received the message from the gun range manager. He subsequently informed the temple authorities of the warning. [3] Lawrence Gardner, Bloodline of the Holy Grail, p. 24
